Archive for March 11th, 2010
Nvidia: we would not cash somebody in for using PhysX
In recent interview to Xbit Labs, Ashutosh Rege, the worldwide director of developer technology at Nvidia, denies accusations of bribing game developers for implementation of GPU PhysX, stated by AMD.
Such claims were given by Richard Huddy, AMD’s senior manager of developer relations, in his interview to THINQ.co.uk website:
“What I’ve seen with physics, or PhysX rather, is that Nvidia create a marketing deal with a title, and then as part of that marketing deal, they have the right to go in and implement PhysX in the game.”
Following responce from Nvidia Ashutosh Rege
“There could be no deal under which we would cash somebody in for using PhysX“
“What we do when we add GPU PhysX engagement with the developer is that in no shape or form we do anything harmful for the rest of the platforms, those that do not support GPU PhysX. It is just an additive value to our GeForce customers and eventually it boosts game experience on the PC”
Source: Xbitlabs.com
Update: additional commentaries from Nadeem Mohammed, Director of PhysX Product Management:
Once PhysX is selected and the developer plans to have a PC version, we will work closely with them to provide whatever engineering and technical assistance to make the PC version as good as it can be – and hopefully that includes pushing the edge on special PhysX effects which may require GPU acceleration for best performance.
We will “invest” our time, energy, expertise and technology to make good games into great PC titles – if that’s what AMD is talking about then sure they are right!
Source: PCGamesHardware.com
AMD and PhysX: History of the Problem
Recent provoking claims by AMD regarding GPU PhysX and all hype around Open Physics Initiative are causing me some Deja Vu feeling.
Why ? Because, actually, hardware accelerated PhysX was criticized by AMD/ATI throughout it’s lifespan (more or less). Let’s take a retrospective look at escalation of the conflict:
In June 2006, just after Ageia PPU launch, ATI unveils their GPU physics processing conception called “Boundless Gaming” (also known as Asymmetric Physics Processing) based on Havok FX engine (technology was supported by Nvidia as well).
X1900 XT GPU was promised to deliver over 9x performance of a PhysX PPU card and games augmented with Havok FX physics were supposed to come out in 2007.
Result ? Havok FX died with Intel aquisition of Havok company, no games were released, 16 titles with Ageia PPU support from hardware PhysX side.
